Monday, September 29, 2014

Noah was extended an offer to trial a new device, compliments of a
therapist in Maryland who gave up her trial opportunity after reading
about the Noah's Krabat Pilot denial by Medicaid. I find sometimes at
my lowest moments is when God sends me someone to try to make a
difference - to make it better - to help me. I corresponded with the
maker of the device for several weeks as he was putting the finishing
touches on his trials. It was a tremendously generous offer, to be
able to try a product for a limited amount of time that may make all the
difference in assisting Noah with his desires to crawl.

The
device, named the iCanCrawler, arrived in the mail Friday and we were
so excited to be able to get Noah started over the weekend. It's a
very small portable device, that folds very easy for storage. The
crawler was very simple to understand, although it did come with a
detailed instruction manual. However, once I seen the yellow harness
that Noah would suit up in to attach to the crawler cage frame, I knew
that he was going to be unable to fit into it. I was a little crushed,
as I had such high hopes. Yet, I suited Noah up anyway just to confirm
what I already knew. My mind wanted to find a way to make it fit. But
sadly the crotch strap was a big confirmation that there was simply no
way. Noah was too big and there was nothing at all I could do to make
it work.

Noah in the iCanCrawler Harness

I wondered how far off we were, so I got out Noah's
Upsee Harness for a comparison. There was a huge gap in size, I
estimated that Noah would have only fit in it until he was around the
age of 2. The manual does suggest it will only fit a child that is 36
months or younger, and weighs no more than 45 lbs, and no less than 12
lbs. Ideally, I think the product would work well for much younger
children. I think it also would greatly benefit children that may have a
delay in meeting developmental milestones, but are expected to
eventually meet those milestones and are in need of additional support
and assistance.

The iCanCrawler Harness and the Upsee Harness (Size Medium)

I like that it has a design that allows a child
to move in all directions. I think that it would offer a young child a
lot of movement encouragement. Without being able to really play with
it and put Noah in it, I suspect that you'd need to support the child's belly to some
degree, at least in the beginning since they are suspended from a single
latch on the back of the harness. I also think that a child would
also have to have some already strong head, neck control with at least
some basic core strength to be successful in this device. I see
children with limb weakness who need a physical assistance really being
able to benefit from this crawler model.

The inventor of the
device, Amir Burstein, is a really nice gentleman. I am so grateful to
both him and the therapist who wanted to help Noah. Mr. Burstein did
indicate through correspondence that he hopes to have a model that will
accommodate larger children in the future. Which would be wonderful.
There are so many children like Noah that are trying to reach these
developmental milestones at much later ages. And I always applaud those
brilliant minds that are doing their best to make the difference in the
lives of children with special needs.

If you'd like to learn more about this product that is in development you can find more information about it here: http://icancrawler.com

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Noah

Noah Mitchell Warden was born December 23, 2008, weighing 9lbs and 1oz by emergency c-section at 8:51am. Noah did not breathe or have a heartbeat for the first 13 minutes of his life. He was taken to Children's Hospital in order to have a procedure done known as brain cooling in attempts to minimize damage caused by perinatal asphyxia. Noah's brain cooled for 72 hours after which time the hospital ran an MRI and an EEG to determine the extent of the damage. Unfortunately, the results came back with devastating news. Noah had suffered "global damage" to his brain. As a result the prognosis was grim. They said Noah would mostly likely never walk, talk, eat or even breathe on his own. Today, Noah has the diagnosis of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy resulting in spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy with athetoid movements. Noah's miracle has brought our story to all of you.